biographyRathbone's second stab at Hollywood was most successful. He acted in big-budget swashbucklers such as Captain Blood (1935; with Errol Flynn) and The Mark of Zorro (1940; with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell); romantic films including The Garden of Allah (1936; with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer) and Romeo and Juliet (1936; with Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard); a few comedies; and even horror films such as Son of Frankenstein (1939; with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) and The Black Cat (1941; with Bela Lugosi and Broderick Crawford). However, audiences know him best from his role in the Sherlock Holmes series of films produced between 1939 and 1946. Rathbone's first Holmes film was Hound of the Baskervilles (1939; with Richard Greene and Nigel Bruce) and was a hit for 20th Century-Fox. After a second outing as Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939; with Ida Lupino and Nigel Bruce), Fox sold the series to Universal in the early 1940s. The Universal productions were engaging but quickly and inexpensively produced; in a little over three years, the studio churned out twelve Holmes films. By the time Dressed to Kill (1946; with Patricia Morison and Nigel Bruce) was in the can, identification with the Sherlock Holmes character had typecast Rathbone and sent his film career into a sharp decline. |
the films of basil rathboneThe Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)Rathbone portrays the handsome and debonair Lord Arthur Dilling to Norma Shearer's Fay Cheyney in the early MGM talkie The Last of Mrs. CheyneyAnna Karenina (1935)Captain Blood (1935)Romeo and Juliet (1936)Tovarich (1937)The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)Rathbone locks swords with Errol Flynn in the Warner Bros. Technicolor swashbuckler The Adventures of Robin HoodThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)From Rathbone's second Sherlock Holmes crime thriller The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Ida LupinoSon of Frankenstein (1939)From the excellent Universal stylish horror film Son of Frankenstein with Boris KarloffThe Mark of Zorro (1940)From 20th Century-Fox's actioner The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power as the title character. This film was Rathbone's last swashbucklerRhythm on the River (1940)Paris Calling (1941)Frenchman's Creek (1944)Rathbone portrayed Lord Rockingham in the Technicolor pirate adventure Frenchman's Creek, released by ParamountThe Pearl of Death (1944)From Universal's Sherlock Holmes entry The Pearl of Death with Nigel Bruce and Evelyn AnkersThe Black Sleep (1956)Rathbone as mad scientist Sir Joel Cadman in the effective United Artists horror flick The Black SleepThe Court Jester (1956)Tales of Terror (1962)With Debra Paget in Roger Corman's Poe-inspired Tales of Terror, released by AIPThe Comedy of Terrors (1964)The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)From American International's final beach party film The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini With Ed Garner, Aron Kincaid, and Quinn O'Haralater yearsRathbone left the role of Sherlock Holmes in 1946, fearing that he had been typecast. And he was right; movie audiences had difficulty accepting him in other roles, so he packed up his family and left Hollywood for New York to work on Broadway and in the new medium of television. He made fewer films thereafter but did quite a bit of work in early television from the late 1940s on, often acting in episodes of dramatic anthology series. In his final years, Rathbone appeared in a string of low-budget science fiction and horror films, many with a comedic bent, including Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965; with Faith Domergue), Queen of Blood (1966; with John Saxon and Florence Marly), The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966; with Deborah Walley, and Tommy Kirk) and Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967; with Joi Lansing and Lon Chaney Jr.). Rathbone's final film was the comedic horror film Autopsy of a Ghost (1968; with John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell), shot in Mexico in late 1966. He passed away from a heart attack about eight months later, on July 21, 1967, at the age of 75. Rathbone was survived by his second wife Ouida, his son Basil Rodion, and daughter Barbara Cynthia. His daughter died at age 30 in 1969 from anemia-related problems. |
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